Pack Opens ACC Play at Miami

The NC State men's basketball team (11-2) opens ACC play Saturday afternoon at Miami (10-2) in the Watsco Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET.

The game will be shown on RSN with Justin Kutcher and Brian Oliver handling the call. Channels that will air the game live include FOX Sports South, FOX Sports Carolinas, FOX Sports Sun, FOX Sports Midwest Plus/FOX Sports Indiana Plus, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, YES, NESN,ROOT Sports Pittsburgh, SportsTime Ohio, FOX Sports Detroit, FOX Sports North Plus, FOX Sports Southwest, FOX Sports Arizona, FOX Sports San Diego and FOX Sports Prime Ticket.

Fans can also listen to the game on the Wolfpack Sports Network with Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes calling the action.

Pack Tracks
- NC State enters ACC play with a six-game win streak after ending its non-conference slate with a 99-71 win over Rider on Wednesday. Dennis Smith, Jr., led the Pack with 19 points and set a PNC Arena record with 16 assists. The 16 assists are the most by an NCAA DI player this season. Overall, six Pack players reached double figures. NC State has had five or more players reach double figures in scoring in three of the last four games.
- Smith has been efficient on the offensive end during the last four games. He is 27-of-45 (60%) shooting overall, 13-of-20 (65%) from three-point range and 14-of-15 (93.3%) from the foul line. He also has 37 assists (9.3 apg.) and 10 steals (2.5 spg.) in his last four outings.
- NC State has had its four highest assist games of the season in the last four games. The Pack had 19 against Appalachian State, 25 versus Fairfield, 18 against McNeese State and 26 vs. Rider. NC State's 26 assists vs. Rider were the most for the Wolfpack since the team had 26 in a 91-61 win over Morehead State on Nov. 13, 2011.
- NC State is off to its best start (11-2) since the 2012-13 team opened the year 14-2. The Pack won its 10th game this season on Dec. 22, which is the earliest date in NC State history the team has gotten to double figure wins.

Noting NC State
- NC State has held five straight opponents to less than 1.00 point per possession. The Pack held McNeese State to 0.77 points per possession, tying the low-mark of the season (Appalachian State - 0.77). The Pack has held an opponent to less than 1.00 points per possession seven times this season. In the first eight games of the season, NC State gave up an average of 78.1 points per game. Over the last five outings, NC State is only giving up 65.0 points per game. In the first eight games, five teams shot 45% or better, including four teams that shot over 50% against the Pack defense. In the last five games, Rider has shot the best of any opponent (37.3%) and the five opponents are shooting a combined 34% from the field (118-of-347).
- After being outrebounded in five of the first seven games of the season, the Pack has outrebounded its opponents in five of its last six games. NC State has out-rebounded its last two opponents by 43. The Pack had a season-best+28 rebounding advantage over McNeese State (55-27) on Dec. 22. NC State has outscored its opponents in second chance points in five of the last seven games. The Wolfpack limited Fairfield to a season-low two second chance points on Dec. 18.
- The Pack has had more assists than turnovers in 11 of its 13 games this season. The only games where the Pack had more turnovers than assists was at Illinois on Nov. 29 and vs.
Tennessee State on Dec. 10.
- Dennis Smith, Jr., is the only Pack player to score in double figures in every game this season.

NC State vs. Miami Series
NC State leads the all-time series with Miami, 11-8 ... The Pack lost last season in Miami, 65-60, on Jan. 22, but had won the previous three meetings at the Hurricanes ... Mark Gottfried is 5-4 vs. Miami as head coach of NC State, including a 2-1 mark at Miami.

Full Squad = Major Bench Production
After playing the first nine games of the season with at least one scholarship player missing, and sometimes two or three players missing, the Pack has had its full complement of players for the last four games. The last four games have been NC State's four highest bench point production nights of the year as the Pack has scored at least 27 points off the bench in all four. The Pack had three players score in double figures off-the-bench in the win over Appalachian State on 12/15 after having only three individual double-digit scoring performances off-the-bench in the first nine games. The Pack scored 46 bench points against Appalachian State, double its previous-best season performance to that point, which was 23 points. Against Fairfield on 12/18, Omer Yurtseven led the NC State bench with 12 points as the Pack scored 29 bench points. Maverick Rowan led NC State with 15 points off-the-bench as the Pack scored 35 bench points in the win over McNeese State on 12/22. In the first nine games of the season, NC State's bench scored 95 points (10.6 per game) total. The team has scored 137 points (34.3) off-the-bench in the last four games.
    The Pack has had a player score in double-figures off-the-bench in five consecutive games.
    For the season, the Pack has 232 points (17.8) off-the-bench, while its opponents have 324 points (24.9) off-the-bench.

Balanced Scoring Attack
            NC State has had five or more players reach double figures in scoring in five games this season. Last season in 33 games, NC State only had three games where five players reached double figures in scoring. The Pack had five players reach double-figures in wins over Georgia Southern (Nov. 11), St. Francis Brooklyn (Nov. 13) and Fairfield (Dec. 18) and had six players in double figures in the win over Appalachian State (Dec. 15) and Rider (Dec. 28). The Pack has had four different players lead the team in scoring this season: Terry Henderson vs. Georgia Southern, Creighton, Boston University, Tennessee State and Fairfield, Torin Dorn vs. St. Francis and Illinois, Abdul-Malik Abu vs. Montana and Dennis Smith, Jr., vs. Saint Joseph's, Loyola (Chicago), Appalachian State, McNeese State and Rider. Through 13 games this season, the Pack has six players averaging in double figures.

Getting Their First Run with the Pack
            Counting Terry Henderson (who only played the first six minutes of the season last year before being injured and lost for the year), 72.5% of the minutes (1904 of 2625 minutes) played for NC State this season have been by players that did not play for the Wolfpack last season. Not counting Henderson, the Pack has had seven players make their NC State debut this season, including five freshmen. The five freshmen have played 1046 minutes this season, 39.8% of the total minutes played on the year. The freshmen class accounts for the highest percentage of minutes played this season for NC State.

Shooting Star
            Sophomore guard Torin Dorn shot 50.5% from the field as a freshman at UNC-Charlotte in 2014-15 en route to being named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
            Through 13 games this season, Dorn is 72-of-129 (55.8%) from the field to rank 5th in the ACC in field goal percentage. Dorn is the highest ranked guard on the field goal percentage list in the ACC. He is 56-of-94 (59.6%) on two-pointers and 16-of-35 (45.7%) on three-pointers. Dorn did not miss a two-point field goal attempt in the Nov. 13 game against St. Francis. He was 8-of-8 in the game on two-pointers. He also hit his first four field goals against Montana before missing a layup late in the first half to snap his streak of 13 consecutive 2-point field goals made.

One of Top-Scoring Trios in ACC
            Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., sophomore Torin Dorn and senior Terry Henderson combine to form one of the top-scoring trios in the ACC. The three players all rank in the top-16 in the ACC in scoring as NC State is the only team in the ACC to have three players in the top-16. The trio combines to average 50.2 points per game. Overall, Dorn, Henderson and Smith have combined to score 653 points this season, which is 58.8% of the points scored by NC State this year.

Top Scoring Trios in ACC
Pittsburgh - Michael Young (22.8), Jamel Artis (20.8), Cameron Johnson (12.4)     56.0
Duke - Luke Kennard (20.4), Grayson Allen (16.0), Amile Jefferson (14.2)   50.6
NC State - Dennis Smith, Jr. (18.9), Terry Henderson (16.4), Torin Dorn (14.9)      50.2

Freshmen Running the Show
            Freshman point guards Dennis Smith, Jr., and Markell Johnson run the show for the Wolfpack this season. The two players combined have 116 assists and 50 turnovers in 703 minutes of action this season. The two combine to average just 1 turnover every 14.1 minutes. Johnson (34 assists/13 turnovers) has a 2.62 assist-to-turnover ratio, while Smith (82 assists/37 turnovers) has a 2.22 assist-to-turnover ratio. Through 13 games, NC State is averaging 84.6 points per game and shooting 49.4% from the field. The points per game and field goal percentage both rank third in the ACC. The two freshmen also rank 1st (Smith - 25) and 2nd (Johnson - 13) on the team in steals.

ACC Freshman of the Week
            Dennis Smith, Jr., was named the ACC Freshman of the Week on Dec. 19, after averaged 19.5 points, 7.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals in two Wolfpack wins the previous week.
            He scored a game-high 22 points on 5-for-8 field goal shooting and 11-for-12 shooting from the foul line to lead NC State to a 97-64 win over Appalachian State. He added a game-high six assists and had all three of the Wolfpack's steals.
            Smith scored 17 points, passed out a season-high nine assists, grabbed five rebounds and added two steals and a blocked shot in a 99-78 win over Fairfield. The Fayetteville, N.C., native was 6-for-10 from the field in the game, including 5-for-7 from 3-point range. The five 3-pointers made were a season-high. For the week, Smith was 11-for-18 (.611) from the field, including 6-for-9 (.667) from 3-point range.

Mr. Double-Double
            Junior forward Abdul-Malik Abu has three double-doubles this season and now has 19 for his career. The 19 double-doubles are the most of any current player in the ACC. Abu had two double-doubles as a freshman and 14 last season as a sophomore.

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Players Mentioned

Abdul-Malik Abu

Torin Dorn

Terry Henderson

Markell Johnson

Maverick Rowan

Dennis Smith, Jr.

Omer Yurtseven